Jeremiah 4:23-31 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The Vision of Desolation (Jeremiah 4:23-26) most impressively describes the Divine visitation of Judah. The earth becomes like the chaos before creation (mg.) under a sky that has lost its lamps; the very mountains have no longer stability; the denizens of earth and air are gone; the garden-land is wilderness; the cities are overthrown (cf. Jeremiah 1:10). Jeremiah has actually seen all this in some ecstatic state, just as George Fox saw its opposite, the paradise of God in which all things were new and all the creation gave another smell! (Journal, i. 28). There follows the application of the vision (Jeremiah 4:27-29), viz such an interpretation of its meaning as would subsequently come into the prophet's more normal consciousness. In Jeremiah 4:30 and Jeremiah 4:31 there is an effective contrast between the gaily-decked prostitute and the travailing woman, though both figures are used to express the same fact, i.e. Jerusalem's helplessness before the invader, either to allure or to withstand.

Jeremiah 4:28. Transpose, with LXX, I have purposed it, and I have not repented.

Jeremiah 4:29. The first city should be land, with LXX.

Jeremiah 4:30. paint, i.e. antimony, which was and is used in the East to darken the rims of the eyelids, that the eyes may appear larger; cf. 2 Kings 9:30; Ezekiel 23:40.

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 4:23

Jeremiah 4:23-31

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy faced with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.